The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. - W. Shakespeare

To be honest, in the past few years there are now several places in the world where I would be reluctant to travel. Not because I no longer want to go there, not because I worry about safety, but only because frankly, there are places in the world where I would be embarassed just because I am an American, because of the actions of the US govornment over the past few years.

I've been to about 30 countries, and I have found that there are good people everywhere. I try to use good common sense and I'm not worried about being hassled. I just don't want to spend the whole vacation feeling like I want to tell everyone I see "I didn't vote for that jerk in the White House!" I really hope some of this will swing back in a better direction after the 2006 elections.

Regarding Cambodia, as we all know the place has really been through hell in recent decades, and things have only been improving in the past ten or fifteen years. Of course, everyone there is very happy that things are so much better and continuing to improve, but I found it amazing that the people seem to be dealing so well with the terrible traumatic events that they have all experienced in one form or another. If it had been me or anyone I know, we could easily have ended up in a mental hospital or living under a bridge with a bottle of cheap wine. The people of Cambodia have a remarkable positive outlook and it shows in their actions. I met people who were adopting large numbers of orphans (this is commonplace - half of the children in the country were orphans), volunteering their time to be teachers in local villages (in addition to working full time at another job), and all manner of selfless humanitarian work. Many examples of people just seeing that something needed to be done and doing it.

They also love to talk about politics. I suspect that this is partly because, well, now they CAN talk about it without being tortured and murdered. When people learned that I was from California, they had lots of questions about our state Govornor, film star Arnold Schwarzennegger. They really seemed to enjoy hearing about how most people in California now think he's a complete a-hole (my feelings from the beginning - 'I didn't vote for the jerk!'). They love to hear people complain about the govornment, even if it's someone else's govornment! Of course, if they hadn't asked, I would never assume they wanted to hear my opinion on these matters.

OK, I'll step down from my soapbox now. If I offended anyone who has opposing political views, I apologize for the offense and point out that I am only sharing my personal opinions. You are certainly entitled to yours.

Regarding avoiding problems due to differing political or cultural views when traveling, I just learn to say a few basic respectful greetings in the local language, smile sincerely (because I really am very glad to be a guest in their country), don't assume it's my job to tell them how things are done in my country, and just try not to be a jerk. That's a job best left to the politicians.

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